The secret process of expert thinkers

I’m going to level with you. It’s about how I work. And I’ll admit up front, it makes me look kinda lazy and unprofessional. But through this essay I hope to show that not only is there logic in the laziness – but that it’s actually the only way to do effective intellectual and creative work. First, […]

How to make strategy stick

The other day I stumbled across this Kevin Kelly quote which really sums up something I’ve learned in the past couple of years: “To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.” In some fields this […]

The correct use of a “why” within strategy

The following is an excerpt from a book I’m working on, called: No Bullshit Strategy: A founder’s guide to forming a strategy that actually works I hope to have it published by the end of this year, and obviously will promote it on here shamelessly, so hopefully it will be of interest to some of […]

5 tips on executing strategy

You’ve heard me say it before, and you’ll hear me say it again: A strategy is only as good as the action it provokes. It’s not an intellectual discipline, it’s a practical one.  Aggressive, confident, coordinated implementation – that’s the actual product here.  Indeed I sometimes think that rather than talking about “strategy” as this […]

Here’s how to get your organisation to commit to strategy

If any of you have read my free little ebook Make Companies Without Competitors, or seen my “Love your competitors” talk, you’ll know that central to my philosophy is the idea of non-competition. Contrary to the common metaphor of the market being “battle ground” or “playing field”, where there is implicitly an enemy to be […]

The 3 ways to judge a strategy

There are two ways a strategy can fail: By being wrong By not being a strategy The first of these, I’m sorry to say, you can’t do much about.  No matter how dazzling your thinking or penetrative your insights, you’ll never really know if it’s going to be effective until after the strategy’s been executed.  […]

The how cascade – where goals end and strategy begins

Of all the strategic sins one could commit, there are few more heinous than the confusion of “goals” with “strategy”. Fortunately it’s so bad that it’s become something of a cliché.  You don’t need to know an awful lot about the field to recognise that “becoming number 1”, or “doubling our revenue”, or “pursuing excellence”, […]

What my strategy documents look like

One question new clients tend to ask when we begin working together, is “what do I get at the end of this?”. Naturally, they get a strategy – and all the ensuing clarity, growth, fame and fortune that goes with it.  But that’s not really what they mean.  What they mean is what actual “thing” […]

Glossary of strategic ideas – volume 2

The following, as suggested by the title, is an update to my old post cataloguing various strategic hacks, tricks, and thought experiments. The article and old items are the same as before, but I’ve added a bunch of new ones – which I’ve highlighted for people who read the original already. Hope it’s of use, stay […]

The opposites game: how to tell if a strategy is nonsense

By my conservative estimate, about 90% of business strategies are, when you get down to it, exactly the same. They use different words, different rationales, different techniques, different frameworks, but beneath it all the actual content, the actual meaning, is identical.  What is this universal mega-strategy of which I speak?  Simply this: “Be good” That’s […]